UMass football looks toward Akron for first win

Michael Cox and UMass are looking for win No. 1 at Akron on Saturday.Associated Press

AMHERST – Last week, Akron and Kent State played for the Wagon Wheel.

As the 1-9 Zips get set to host the 0-9 University of Massachusetts football team Saturday, perhaps the two should play for Wheels That Came Off.

Winless in its Football Bowl Subdivision debut, UMass can take solace in the fact Akron hasn’t defeated an FBS team since Nov. 26, 2010. Incidentally, that was also the last time – until this week – the Zips were favored against an FBS team. That day, the bookmakers gave them a 1-point edge over Buffalo.

Twenty FBS losses later, Las Vegas still likes the Zips by 17 against the Minutemen.

And why shouldn’t it? The Minutemen have been blown out in all but two of their games, most recently 63-0 at Northern Illinois. Akron went punch for punch with Miami (Ohio), was tied at halftime with Tennessee in Knoxville, was close in the fourth quarter with Kent State and went to overtime at Florida International

Still, the 1-9 record gets the attention of fans. If there ever were a time for optimism within the UMass fan base in 2012, it would be now.

“If there’s any increased optimism, it’s because they’re similar to us in that they’re trying to get their feet underneath them,” UMass coach Charley Molnar said. “Each one of us would like to feel like we’re getting closer and closer every day, but the reality of it is that at the end this Saturday, one of us won’t be as close as we’d like to be.”

UMass will have to contend with an Akron offense, led by quarterback Dalton Williams' Mid-American Conference-best 3,004 passing yards, that has been explosive at times, especially early in the season. The Zips scored at least 26 points in all four of their September games, including a 49-spot they hung on Miami (Ohio).

“We talk over and over again about how well their quarterback plays and how accurate he is,” Molnar said. “He gets the ball out of his hands fast and he’s really a rhythm passer. He has a good sense of timing”

Despite the regression in the numbers – Akron has scored more than 26 just once since September – senior safety Darren Thellen said he sees on film what the Zips are capable of.

“You can see they’re dangerous and can put up points at any moment,” Thellen said. “At the beginning of the season, they were putting up a lot of points. That just shows us the potential they have.”

First-year Akron coach Terry Bowden says he understands Molnar’s plight, but his team won’t be taking the Minutemen lightly.

“I think (UMass) is a hard-hitting team, and I empathize a lot as you come into this league. You see how many teams are going to go to bowls and they’re not going to lose,” Bowden said. “They know that both of these two teams have struggled and it’s about not giving up and playing hard. Our seniors want to win. These guys, there wasn’t a lot of crying going on in that locker room.”

If UMass is to capture its first FBS win, Molnar said he thought it would most likely come in a shootout, rather than a defensive battle.

“I’m just used to being in shootout games, so maybe I have a higher tolerance for that,” he said. “If it was just close, grind-it-out, it would be hard to have great confidence that we could win that game because we haven’t won one like that.”

Then, he added a key dose of perspective.

“Of course, we haven’t won one the other way either,” he said. “Beggars can’t be choosers. I’d take any kind of win right now.”